


Family

by Kaylathebookworm



Category: RWBY
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-22
Updated: 2020-01-22
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:40:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22358077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaylathebookworm/pseuds/Kaylathebookworm
Summary: Emerald had a family, once. Until one day, she lost everything.I wanted to give Emerald the backstory she was never given.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	Family

Once upon a time, Emerald’s life was perfect. She had two loving parents, and a little brother named Sky. They lived in a small apartment in the middle part of the city of Alsius. Emerald didn’t remember what her parents did for work, but she knew that they loved her.

She knew that she loved them.

She was eight when her world fell apart.

She was outside, walking down the street, looking for the perfect gift for her mother’s birthday. She was allowed to walk down one block by herself now, and she loved her freedom. She giggled as she looked back at her apartment complex and saw her dad waving from the window. She looked in the window of a little shop that she passed, and she saw the flowers.

There were so many flowers! She knew her mom liked purple ones. Violets, she thought they were called. 

She spent what was probably far too much time looking for the violets, but she was having fun. Her mom was going to be so excited by her present!

She had finally found the flowers she was looking for when she smelled smoke. She frowned, knowing she shouldn’t be able to smell smoke, but she was sure it was fine. 

When she walked to the counter, she heard the scream of sirens.

That was a good thing, right? The sirens meant that people were coming to put the fire out, and everything was going to be okay!

She smiled, giving the cashier the five lien she had been given by her parents, and took her flowers. She didn’t notice the cashier worriedly looking out the window.

When she stepped outside, she gasped. The entire building she lived in was in flames, fifty feet tall. She dropped her flowers and started running.

Her family was going to be fine. She knew it. Everything was always okay. This wasn’t something that happened. 

As she got closer to the building, her fear and horror grew. Her family lived on the top floor. There was no more top floor. It was entirely engulfed in flame. 

But everything was going to be okay. It had to be.

She tried to approach the building, but a firefighter put his hand out and said, “Stay back, kid. We can’t have anyone going near this thing until the fire is out.”

“Where’s my family?” she asked.

“I’m not sure,” he replied, but I’m sure we’ll find them.”

She nodded, creasing her eyebrows, and started walking around the building. She saw people everywhere, people she recognized, but she didn’t see her family.

“Mommy?” she cried, “Daddy? Where did you go?”

When no one responded, she stepped back a little, and decided to wait for them. They would find her, she was sure of it. She shivered, wishing that she was back inside, drinking hot cocoa at the kitchen table, laughing as she played with Sky.

Any minute now, her parents would find her, Sky in her father’s arms, and they would watch the firefighters put out the fire. Then they would go home.

Emerald waited, and waited, and waited. After what felt like far too long, the fire was out. Everyone cheered. But she still didn’t see her family.

“Can you help me find my Mommy?” she asked a neighbor, “I still can’t find my parents.”

“Oh sweetheart,” they responded, “I don’t think I’ve seen them. But I’ll help you look, okay?”

“Okay,” she replied, growing more worried by the second.

They wandered around for a while, and it was starting to get dark. The crowd was thinning out. The neighbor left with a sad goodbye, saying that they had their own family to take care of.

Emerald sat by herself on the curb. There were hardly any people left. The only people left were crying, or talking in hushed whispers.

She heard a woman scream, and saw someone drag her away. “My babies!” she cried, “I need to find my babies!”

That’s when Emerald knew she wouldn’t find them. The realization hit her like a slap to the face, and she started sprinting. 

She ran and ran until she couldn’t breathe anymore, and then she ducked into an alley. She folded herself against the side of a building, and felt her eyes burn with tears. She wiped them away, but they began to come too fast, and soon, she was bawling.

Her family was gone. Her parents, her brother. There would be no more happy memories. There would be no more home. There was nothing left.

She wasn’t sure how long she sat there. It started to rain, and she curled further into a ball. Nothing mattered anymore. She didn’t feel the cold, or the rain, or her hunger.

It wasn’t  _ fair _ . She wanted her life back. Why did she have to lose everything?

That night, she slept in the alley. 

In the morning, she begged, for the first time in her life. No one helped her. Everyone walked right past. They ignored her cries for help.

“Please, please help me,” she begged one wealthy looking man, grabbing onto his coat.

He snarled at her, and shoved her, knocking her into a trash can. “Beat it, kid,” he said as he walked on.

She stopped asking for help after that. She ate from the garbage cans when she got hungry, and built herself a small shelter in the alley. 

This was her home now. This was her life.

After about a week of starving, and freezing, and living alone and dejected in an alley, she returned from scavenging to find her shelter destroyed. She hadn’t found any food that wasn’t completely rotten. She sobbed, again, and felt herself despair.

Another wealthy man walked past. This time, when she grabbed onto him to ask for his help, she shoved her hand in his back pocket. She grabbed his wallet, and she ran.

“Hey!” the man shouted, “After her! Thief!” 

She just kept running and running, until she was sure no one would find her. She felt guilty, she had never stolen anything before. But she was desperate. She had nothing. That man had all he could ever want, and more.

She felt nothing but relief as she used his money to purchase a hot meal and a place to stay for the night.

She supposed she was a thief, now. A criminal. She decided she could live with that.


End file.
